Is it rude to ask half marathon time ?

I never ask - just ask we're you happy with your time ? Anyway today some fool at the school gates asked me about my recent half time & then muttered "yeah not that bad" he got on my wick so I asked what time was yours. " oh me - I do 8 miles (during my lunch hour as they have showers) then broke my ankle - am I to assume he did 8 mile & had a shower in an hour ? I parted muttering well London is flat .... I found that on my various half marathons, 10k's and VLM I felt much better. So was I being a childish ......

Just ask what their idea of good is and if they;ve ever done it with a knowing smile. Most people whp ask are genuinely interested and that "Not bad" might just have been genuine and a complement. If thought not, refer to first sentence

My philosophy is there, will always be someone quicker than you.. If i ask someone their running time, and i am quicker, i will say it, but it just general banter. True runners will never get into a pissing contest, since the person we have to impress the most is our selves.

In my mind it is only the person that came first who is the true runner, and has the right to revel in his / her glory. Its always interesting to compare times. Its human nature. I am just naturally curious. If someone is quicker, then i want to know what makes them quicker, what training they use, so i might improve mine.

I have done some quick times, but then i have had injuries, and found my times suffered as a result. Its kind of an up and down battle with myself.

Unless you do the exact route in a training run, you cannot compare times. Also some people run better in the morning, or the evening, or when they have had a few days break.

In the circumstances of the guy at the gate, surely most runners would listen to the OP's time, and keep their own time to themselves.

Sounds suspiciously like he was making it up. I doubt he covered 8miles, got changed twice and showered within a lunch hour!

And as for the breaking an ankle, classic excuse. He's probably one of those, "the older I get the better I was" types, who funnily enough has no recorded results, and his best times are his own training runs, not recorded by GPS.

And as for the breaking an ankle, classic excuse. He's probably one of those, "the older I get the better I was" types, who funnily enough has no recorded results, and his best times are his own training runs, not recorded by GPS.

hah heard that so many times, its also amazing how much slower/shorter some people i know runs got once they got smartphones/garmins

I dont mind anyone asking me what time I got because, being over 60, whatever time I say they always tell me that it is very good. Mind you someone the other day followed up with 'is that a PB' and I thought, I have been running for over 30 years now and was not fast then and it must be 25 years since I set a PB over any distance and felt very tempted to say yes just to see what they said.

People react badly to the word "half". Tell them you ran 13.1 miles over the weekend and they will be more impressed. HALF ironman gets the same reaction. I don't think people are morons, they are just ignorant of what some of us nutters do for a hobby. Avoid KMs unless talking to the under 25s as most people think they are much shorter. So 21k isn't a distance anyone would recognise.

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